(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, this morning I'm preaching on the subject Orthodoxy in light of the Bible, and I'm talking about the Orthodox Church, also known as Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, all the different various branches of this religion. Now, you say, why preach on this subject? Why preach against the Orthodox Church? Well, number one, because I have a lot of people who listen to my sermons who are former Orthodox, and what they're saying is, you know, nobody's preaching against this. Nobody's covering this. Nobody needs to expose this false religion. Secondly, Orthodoxy is the second largest denomination in the world with 225 to 300 million adherents. It's huge. But yet, it seems that people just give this religion a pass. Even though most Evangelical Bible-believing Christians would readily know that Roman Catholicism is a wicked false religion and that it is a perversion of Christianity, somehow Orthodoxy gets a pass, that it's not as bad, when in fact, I'm going to demonstrate in this sermon that not only is Orthodoxy as bad as Roman Catholicism, in some ways it's even worse. The third reason that I want to preach this sermon is because lately, Putin, the President or Prime Minister, whatever he is of Russia, has been lifted up as some kind of a Christian hero lately, and Vladimir Putin is being exalted as a great Christian when in reality he's baptized as a baby into the Russian Orthodox Church. That's his Christianity, it's Orthodoxy, it's Catholicism. Now I realize that our President Obama is a queer little sissy, so that makes people kind of gravitate toward Putin because he's actually a normal manly guy, but that doesn't make him a hero unto Christians or some kind of a Bible-believing Christian when actually he's part of this false religion of Orthodoxy. And then another reason why is that there's this guy on YouTube called Brother Nathaniel. Who's seen this guy on YouTube? Yeah, hands all over the building. And people send me this guy's videos like, oh, this guy's got some really good stuff about the Zionists, about the Jews and everything like that, but the guy is an Orthodox teacher and he even wears the whole outfit with the long black dress, the cute little dress that he wears, and the black hat. Now if you would, turn over to Luke chapter 20. And what's amazing to me, though, is that if this guy were dressed up like a Catholic priest with his collar turned around backwards, people wouldn't be promoting his video. They wouldn't be sending you that video, they'd say, whoa, don't listen to this guy, he's a Catholic priest. But yeah, Bible-believing Christians are somehow more comfortable and cozy with Orthodoxy when it is every bit as wicked. Where does this religion dominate? Well, first of all, we have it right here in Tempe. There are Orthodox churches right around us. But not only that, in places like Armenia, it's 90-some population. In places like Greece, Romania, all throughout Eastern Europe, Serbia, in places like Russia, parts of Africa, such as Ethiopia, Eritrea, this is the dominant form of quote-unquote Christianity, but I'm here to tell you this is an apostate false religion. Now first of all, when I first saw this guy, Brother Nathaniel, I immediately knew that he's a false teacher because of the outfit that he's wearing. And you say, well, don't judge a book by its cover. Yet Jesus specifically warned us about people who would wear outfits like that. Because look down at your Bible in Luke 20, verse 46, beware of the scribes which desire to walk in long robes and love greetings in the markets and the highest seats in the synagogues. In Mark 12, he says the same thing. He says beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing. Look, God warns against long clothing, long robes, and just because somebody paints a picture of Jesus where they give him long hair, which the Bible says no to on men, and then they put him in long robes, which Jesus specifically warned against, that doesn't make it right. And so when you see these people who love the greetings in the markets and the greetings in the airport, they love to walk in public places and stand out like a sore thumb because they're not wearing normal clothing. That's a sign of a false teacher right there. They turn the collar backwards so everybody can know that they're a man of God, a man of the cloth, and they wear this long, flowing garment, a sign of their pride, a sign of their religious hypocrisy, a sign that they are a whited sepulcher. But what's wrong with the orthodox religion? Number one, they're wrong on salvation. And let me say this, if you're wrong on salvation, you're wrong on everything. What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? So I don't want to hear anything that Brother Nathaniel, quote, unquote, has to say because he's not my brother in Christ because he has a different gospel of false salvation. Let him be accursed. Let him be accursed if he preaches a false gospel. I don't care how long his robe is. He's going to split hell wide open unless he gets saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for the free gift of salvation. And number one, they believe salvation's by works in the orthodox religion. In fact, there are three aspects of salvation that they get all of them wrong. Number one, they believe it's by works, it's actually by faith. What does the Bible say? For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But listen to what the orthodox prerequisites for salvation are. This is what the orthodox church lists as the requirements for salvation. Number one, faith. Number two, the saving sacraments, which are baptism, confirmation, repentance and confession and the Eucharist. So you have to confess to the priest, you have to get baptized, you have to partake of the Lord's supper and you have to be confirmed in the orthodox church. These are your saving sacraments. So faith's not enough. No, no, no. You need the saving sacraments also according to orthodoxy. Then not only that, they add a third requirement of good works. So number one, faith. Number two, the sacraments. And number three, good works. The Bible says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. You say, well, if you have the faith, you'll automatically have the works too. Okay, let me just quote that again. You apparently weren't listening the last few seconds. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's biblical salvation. You'll find that in Romans 3. You'll find that in Romans 4. You'll find that in Romans 5, Romans 6. You'll find it in Galatians. You'll find it in Ephesians. It's the message of the New Testament came out of the mouth of Jesus Christ himself when he said, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me has everlasting life. John 3.16 says it all, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. But not only do they mix up the fact that salvation's by faith not of works, secondly, they teach that salvation's a process, when in reality, salvation takes place in a moment of time. Now, remember, Jesus Christ likened being saved unto being born again. Well, let me ask you this. Was your birth a long, drawn-out process over the course of days, weeks, months, or years? Or were you born in a moment? I was born on July 24, 1981, at 4.11 in the afternoon. It wasn't some process that took place over the course of, you know, 1981, 82, 83, that range. I was slowly born into the family. That sounds painful, okay? It's a one-time deal. Being saved is a one-time deal. Here's a quote from one of their patriarchs, or one of their popes, because they have not just one pope, as the Roman church has, but they have all these separate autonomous churches. They believe the same things, but they have separate churches in different areas, like they have the Greek Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox, the Romanian Orthodox. And then there's also a distinction between what's called Eastern Orthodox and what's called Oriental Orthodox, which would be the Armenian, the Coptic, the Ethiopian, et cetera. But let's just pick one of them. But this is representative of what all Orthodox believe, if you look into this. Let's just start with the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, all right? Here's what their pope said. And they call him that. They call him the Coptic Pope. In Russia, they'll call him the Patriarch. But whether you're calling him the Pope, the Patriarch, whether you're calling the guy at the monastery the Abbot, these are all just fancy ways of calling him Father. And Jesus said, call no man your father upon the earth. He said, be not called Rabbi. And I'm sure that Brother Nathaniel would point that out, you know, be not ye called Rabbi. And then he'll turn around and call his guy Abbot, Patriarch, Pope, Father, whatever. Because it comes from the Latin word, pater, patriarch, right, pope, papa, it's all the same thing. Abbot comes from Abba, Father, right, the Hebrew word that we find in our New Testament, whereby we cry to God, Abba, Father. We don't call a man Abbot, unless we're talking about Abbot and Costello, that word's never going to come out of my mouth. But listen to what the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church said. First of all, he wrote a whole book called The Heresy of Salvation in a Moment. That it's heresy to say you're saved in a moment. Here are some quotes from him about salvation. But we say that salvation is not attained through good works, yet it is not attained without them. I mean, this is the kind of nonsense that comes out of the mouths of false teachers. And everybody who teaches works salvation, that's the kind of stuff they say, they don't realize how dumb it sounds because they're spiritually blinded. To us, which are saved, it's just one face palm after another, like, well, you're not saved by good works, but you're not saved without them. I mean, think about that for a while. Here's another quote from the same guy, and this guy's name is Pope, Pope Shiunda. This means, here's another quote from him, this means that baptism is necessary for one's salvation. For through baptism, sins are forgiven and one is made capable of receiving the Holy Spirit. Every day you sin, you need the flesh of Christ sacrificed on your behalf. No, the Bible says he died once. It says otherwise, if he would have been like the earthly high priest, then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now what's in the end of the world if he appeared to put away sins by the sacrifice of himself once for all? In fact, the holy offering of Eucharist is a continuation of the sacrifice of Christ. No, it's done. It is finished. He already died on the cross. He was sacrificed once. His body was broken for us. It's done. It's finished. He says it's a continuation, therefore you cannot be saved of your sins without Eucharist. You got to go to his church where he's going to put on a dress and a funny hat and give you a cracker and that's what's going to get you to heaven according to this guy. The sacrament of repentance is also known in the church as the sacrament of confession, for you need to come to the priest and confess your sins in order to have absolution from him and have them forgiven. No, the Bible says confess your faults one to another. It doesn't say confess your sins to a priest because there's one mediator between God and sin, the man Christ Jesus and who can forgive sins but God only and him. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. We don't need some mediator. No, we have boldness to enter the holiest of all by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us through the veil. That is to say his flesh and having an high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. Jesus Christ is the high priest and every believer is a priest. Every believer is a priest. I'm a priest. You're a priest. The Bible says that we are a chosen generation, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. We are all priests unto God and our father through the blood of Jesus according to Revelation 1. He says the gift of the Holy Spirit is received in the second sacrament of the church, which is the sacrament of the Holy Chrism or Myron. I don't even know what that means. If faith alone were sufficient to give salvation, then what was the need to baptize three thousand souls on one day? Look just because salvation by faith doesn't mean baptism doesn't have a place. Look church attendance has its place. Reading the Bible has its place. Giving alms to the poor has its place. Prayer and fasting have their place. But when it comes to salvation, it's what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. What a foolish argument. Well why baptize three thousand and what? Well why baptize three in one day? Popes you and I? Why not? Why baptize thirty? What's the number have anything to do with it? They got baptized in obedience to Christ, but that's not salvation. It's funny how Paul said, I thank God that I baptized none of you for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. You know, how could baptism be a part of the gospel if he separates it like that? It's ridiculous. Was the thief on the cross baptized and no, but he believed he had faith in Christ. He says this, thus death keeps working with it. No deaths working in you buddy. Death keeps working within you until the body actually dies. As long as you do away with the deeds of the body, then you're still on the way of salvation. Yeah. Good luck with that. You've done away with all the deeds of the body. Would someone like to stand and tell me that you've done away with all the deeds of the body? Because according to this guy, you're saved if you do that, then you're still on the way of salvation. When will you reach the end of the way? You'll reach it when you die and pass to the other world. One's faith does not protect one against falling under condemnation due to one's words. Salvation is the story of the whole life. Saint Paul said, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. No, that's not what the Bible says, buddy. Turn to first Corinthians one 18 and see what the Bible actually says. First Corinthians one 18. Let's see what the Bible says. While you're turning there, I'm going to read for you the Bible verse that was shown to me when I got saved as a six year old boy at age six. My mother showed me John five 24 when I got saved, verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that send me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. See according to the Bible, when we believe on Jesus Christ, we've already been passed from death unto life. It's done. It's over. I've already saved. I've been passed from death unto life. I've been sealed by the Holy Spirit under the day of redemption. I've been born again. I'm a child of God. I have present tense everlasting life and I shall not come into condemnation because I've been passed from death unto life. It's not a process. Here's what the Bible actually says in first Corinthians one 18. It says for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Not being saved, saved, and you know what my favorite part of the word saved is? The D on the end, done, past tense, saved, done. Now in order to be saved, that means I'm no longer in danger. I'm free from danger. I've been saved. I've been rescued. Now when you look at this verse, there are those who would say, oh, well these other modern Bible versions, they get it right when they say being saved. Well, here's the foolishness of that. First of all, I believe the King James Bible is the word of God, that error. But secondly, the foolishness of that is that in order to change saved to being saved, you'd have to change the fact that those which perish are those which are perishing in the sense of continually dying because it's the same verb tense. So that's why these modern versions will say those who are perishing and those who are being saved. That's why this guy says, well, death keeps working in you until the body actually dies. So they have to make death a process because if you're going to make salvation a process, you've got to make death a process. Well, neither one of those things make any sense. I'm not dying right now. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm not dying. I'm in my prime. I'm 34 years old. No, you're dying. No, I'm not. Yeah, a five-year-old's dying. They're not even fully grown. They're not even to their prime yet. They're still on the ascendancy, if anything. But this is the kind of weird teaching you have to, in order to teach this salvation as a process, you have to make death this process that goes on for years and years. No, listen, birth, one day. Death, one day. I mean, isn't that just common sense? You know, I mean, open the family Bible, born this day, died that day. Not like, well, he was kind of dying for the last seven or eight years. Whoa. How long have you been? I'm dying. How long have you been dying? All my life. Sounds dramatic. Salvation in the Coptic Orthodox concept is seen as comprehending all of life. It's not a historical event that took place during a moment in the past. No, it's not a historical event that took place in your past, because you're not saved, Pope Shul and Doc. And you're not saved, Brother Nathaniel. That's why it didn't happen in your past. Okay, but thirdly, this. So first of all, they get salvation wrong because they think it's by works. Second, they get it wrong because they think it's a process. When it's a moment, it's in the twinkling of an eye. Your spirit is quickened and resurrected. And then thirdly, they get it wrong because they say you can lose it. Once you're saved, they say you can lose it. All of their salvation doctrine is wrong on every point. But other than that, they're great Bible teachers. So turn to 1 John, Chapter 5. While you're turning there, I'll read for you from the Orthodox teaching. Evil works lead a person to perdition and make him lose his salvation. But good works are necessary for salvation. Does this sound like the Gospel, or does it sound like that other Gospel that Paul worried about in Galatians 1? So let me ask you this. Should we listen to anybody who's Orthodox teach us anything about the, the Bible says let him be a curse. He didn't say subscribe to the channel. Think about that. If he says, if they're teaching another gospel, let them be a curse. It doesn't say, hey, subscribe and listen to all the good stuff that he has to teach. This guy is a preacher of a false gospel. This pope, all of these Orthodox are preachers of the worst kind of work salvation. Listen to this. Good works are necessary for salvation, he says. Absence of good works shows that faith is dead and fruitless. Yeah, I, I agree that you know what? Absence of good works shows that you're, you're not bringing forth fruit. That don't make you unsaved though, because otherwise we'd all be unsaved because we all have varying degrees of works, varying degrees of sin in our life. Salvation is by faith, not works. But he says good works alone are not sufficient for salvation without faith and baptism. Oh, thanks for that caveat. You know, but let's move on to this. You know, hey, they say you can lose your salvation. What does the Bible say in 1st John 5, 10? He that believeth on the son of God at the witness in himself. He that believeth not God have made him a liar. Because he believed in not the record that God gave of his son. So there's two kinds of people in this world. There's those who believe on the son of God. And there are those who are making God a liar. Okay, and how do they make God a liar? Because they don't believe the record that God gave his son. Well, what's the record? This is the record, verse 11, that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his son. That's the record you have to believe. You don't believe that record, you're not saved. Now notice there's three things you can see just in that short little sentence of what the record is. Number one, you got to believe that God has given to us eternal life. Given, not sold, not bartered, not he made us work for it as a salary or wages. No, it's the gift of God is eternal life. So number one, he's given us, and then what has he given us? Eternal life, not temporary life, not life until I sin again or stop going to church. And then the third thing is that this life is in his son. So in order to have biblical salvation, it has to be a gift, it has to be eternal, and it has to be through Jesus. Now you say, well, the Orthodox is saying that it's through Jesus. Yeah, but they're saying it's not a gift and that it's not eternal because you can lose it and you got to work for it. So they got two out of three false here. They are making God a liar. Therefore, they don't have the witness in themselves. Who's the witness, according to the context? The Holy Ghost. They don't have the witness in themselves and they're making God a liar, they're preaching a false gospel. But I've spent a lot of time on that, we got to move on from that. But isn't that the most important problem? Because if you're wrong on that, you're wrong on everything, okay? Now, second, so first of all, they're wrong on salvation. Number two, number two is that they have all the same heresies as Catholicism, the same mystery Babylon religion. And let me tell you something, when you read about the Orthodox Church and you read about the Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, it's hard to even distinguish the difference. And there are so many weird things in Catholicism and all the same things in Orthodoxy where you just wonder, where in the world does this come from in the Bible? Because it's that spirit of mystery Babylon religion, that pagan idolatrous religion that actually precedes the Catholic Church, being founded in 313 AD. It actually precedes even the time of Christ when you have Babylon, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans with their gods and goddesses, which have been replaced by Mary and the saints and all of this. All of this mystery Babylon garbage is still there in Orthodoxy. Okay, here are some examples. Number one, chanting, chanting in Orthodoxy, chanting in Catholicism. Number two, monks, nuns and monasteries. Number three, confessing to a priest. Number four, using titles for their clergy like father, patriarch, Pope, abbot, whatever. Long robes in both. Praying to Mary and the veneration of Mary. They're actually worshiping Mary, but they just call it veneration. Praying to the saints, veneration of the saints. Praying for dead people, people that have already died, praying to get them out of hell. Okay, which is also a false doctrine. All the same candles, incense, icons, idols, relics and we'll talk more about the relics in a moment. Actually, let's talk about the relics right now. The relics are where they take the dead body of a saint and it goes on tour. Okay, to each church, like these relics would be, they could be an inanimate object like this is a splinter from the true cross. This is the holy grail or this is whatever, the shroud of whatever. So it's all these just objects that they get all superstitious about and rub like a rabbit's foot. And they get all worked up about. But here's the thing, they literally parade dead bodies around and they bow down to dead bodies. Go online, you can find tons of pictures of orthodox believers bowing down to a dead body. Just the corpse of a man, and they're not saying it's Jesus. We know he's at the Father, he's risen. There's no Jesus body. But it's bodies of various saints that they will literally take on tour to each church. Like, oh man, I can't wait until the dead corpse of Saint so-and-so shows up later this month. I'm gonna kiss that thing. I'm gonna bow down to that thing. I'm gonna touch that thing. And they think, look, it's superstitious paganism. It's nothing to do with biblical Christianity. The same superstitious pagan garbage. Also, they'll have their mass in a foreign language in some places. Now, obviously, some places they do it in the language of Russian orthodox, does it in Russian, whatever. But for example, the Coptic orthodox church is doing it in the ancient Coptic language that people don't speak. You know, they speak Arabic. But they're going to church and it's all in this Coptic language. They don't understand other geographic places. They'll do the same thing like the Catholics had done with the Latin mass, okay, that people didn't understand. Okay, they reject the doctrine of scripture alone being our authority, and they think that the holy traditions are equal to scripture. Infant baptism in both. Now, the difference between the Roman Catholic and the orthodox Catholic is just that the Roman Catholic sprinkles the baby. The orthodox will dunk the baby three times. I mean, I've never seen anybody baptized three times except Todd Bentley, you know, the bam, bam, bam. But basically, you know, they'll dunk the baby three times. First of all, where do you get the doctrine of dunking three times on a baptism? That's not biblical, that's not found anywhere. No, Jesus died once. He was buried once and he rose again once. But they had their continual offering going on, so it's bam, bam, bam, three times, okay. And they're dunking simply because the Eastern church had Greek as its native language. They know the word baptism means immersion. Whereas the Romans were able to dupe people into going for sprinkling because they don't know what the Greek word means. Infant baptism, the same supposed apostolic priesthood, which is not a biblical concept. We believe in the priesthood of the believer. Every believer is a priest according to the Bible. We have direct access to God. Oh, come to the Father through Jesus the Son, is what we sing, because of the fact that there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus said, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Not by, he didn't say by Mary, by the saints, by any of these other people. And then also the celibate bishops. Now here's how it works, let me read this for you because the local pastor of the Orthodox church will often be married, usually be married, but the bishop is not married. So let me read this for you. With the exception of bishops who remain celibate, the Orthodox church has always allowed priests and deacons to be married. Oh, thank you for allowing them to be married. The Bible says they must be married. The Bible says the bishop then must be blameless. Listen, the husband of one wife. 1 Timothy 3, 2 commands that a bishop must be married because if a man know not how to rule his own house, how should he take care of the church of God? Well, if you're not married and you don't have children, you don't know how to rule that. And the Bible says that you have to. So the bishop has to be the husband of one wife. They say, well, the local guy can but not the bishop. What does the Bible say about the bishop? Must be the husband of one wife. But holy tradition. So, in general, it's considered preferable for parish priests to be married as they often act as counsel to married couples and thus can draw on their own experiences. Unmarried priests usually are monks and live in monasteries. Though there are occasions when because of a lack of married priests, a monk priest. Yeah, I remember reading about those in the New Testament, right, monk priests? The only monkey in the Bible are the ones where Solomon's bringing them with the peacocks and apes and everything, right? But it says, widowed priests and deacons may not remarry. So you're the pastor of the local church, your wife dies, you're celibate, buddy. This is true of widowed wives of clergy who do not remarry and become nuns when their children are grown. Yeah, that's biblical. The Bible teaches the exact opposite. It says if they're under 60 years old and their spouse dies, get remarried. That's what the Bible specifically spells out in 1 Timothy 5. There's no end to the heresy. But let's move on. Let's talk about the vain repetitions. Here's another similarity with Catholicism. This is even worse than Catholicism. See, in Catholicism, they chant the Lord's Prayer. And then they'll chant the Hail Marys. They'll chant other prayers. And what does the Bible say? But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. So this vain repetition is something that was adopted by Christians, so-called a heathen practice. This is a heathen thing. So where did it start? Did it start with Jesus and the disciples or did it start with the heathen? So the heathen do vain repetitions. Now, what is the heathen referring to? The heathen is referring to foreign nations. We're talking about pagans. They do this. Now, let's ask ourselves, do the heathen do vain repetitions? Well, for example, we could talk about one of the oldest false religions in the world, Hinduism, which has over a billion followers. And do they do vain repetitions? Om, om, shanti, shanta, whatever. And they repeat stuff over and over. Buddhists do the same thing, right? Repeat things over and over, little superstitious statements that all of these heathen religions do. He says, be not ye therefore like unto them. They think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. He says, don't be like them. Your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him, it says, in Matthew 6, 7, and 8. But here's what they chant in the Orthodox. It's even more of a vain repetition than what the Roman Catholics do, because it's even shorter. I mean, at least the Lord's Prayer lasts for 30 seconds or something. At least the Hail Mary, of course, they're praying to the wrong person. But listen to this, this is the prayer that they chant in Orthodoxy. It's the whole thing. It's called the Jesus Prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. That's it. OK, so-called Brother Nathaniel on YouTube, he talked about how he would pray that for like three or four hours at a time. Like he's autistic, like he's Rain Man or something. It's just like Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me the sinner. You're nuts! And you know what, you're no different than those people that go to that stupid wall and do the... Oh, where are my beads? My beads, oh, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me the sinner. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me, the sinner. All right, five more hours to go. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Ah, ah, ah, ah. You're a pagan fool. God never told you to do that. They that worship Him, most worship Him in spirit and in truth. You're supposed to talk to God like Moses talked to God as a man speaks to his friend. That's what the Bible said. You say, look, you say what you need to say, you make your petition made known unto God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Hey, whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight, not because we repeated it five billion times. He says, look, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. What does that mean? When you pray, you ask for something and you walk away. Now, is it good to pray for hours? Sure, you could pray for hours, but you better have hours of stuff to pray about. Not just Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Yo, you getting bored? Sit tight, we got four hours of this. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus Christ, Son of God. That is weird. It's for crazy people, but this is what Buddhists do. Sit under the lotus tree and look for enlightenment. All this Eastern, mystical, Hindu, mumbo jumbo, becoming one with the universe and all this junk. That's exactly what the Orthodox is teaching. And by the way, isn't it interesting how Brother Nathaniel gets on YouTube and tells everybody about chanting that for three or four hours? I thought the Bible said when you pray, you're not supposed to sound a trumpet and tell everybody. I thought you're supposed to enter into your closet and shut the door and pray. Oh, I chanted it three or four hours. I said the same sentence over and over again for three or four hours. You're a psychopath. You're nuts, you're a fool, you're a Buddhist, you're a Hindu, you're not a Christian, you're a heathen. You say, well, you sure are preaching hard about this. You know why? Because I hate every false way. That's what the Bible says. God's word is exceeding pure. His way is right. The Bible teaches that we should spend our time reading the word. We should spend our time preaching to the lost. We should spend our time doing physical labor. We should spend our time fellowshipping with one another, fellowshipping with our families, and we should spend our time praying but not repeating. You pray for it one time, that's it. You pray, you move on. Now, I'm not saying you're not gonna pray that same thing the next day, but you don't just sit there and repeat it right then and there. God's up in heaven like, okay, I get it, I heard you. The Bible says he already knows what things you have need of before you ask him. And you know what he's sitting there thinking? I'm not gonna be merciful to you because you don't even have faith in me. You think it's your deeds. You think chanting's gonna get you to heaven. You think that cracker's gonna get you to heaven. You think drinking wine and getting dunked, triple dunk. The triple dunk is gonna get you into heaven. It's not going to. Look, this is serious, friend. 225 million people are believing in this stuff. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. It's a vain repetition. It's vain. It's meaningless. Your prayer is hitting the ceiling if that's how you pray. It's chanting. It is heathen chanting of the Hindus, the Buddhists, and every other Christ-rejecting philosophy that has made its way into a supposed Christian denomination. Not only that, but they call Mary the mother of God. Let's check if that's biblical or not. Go to Hebrews chapter seven. They teach that Mary's the mother of God. And they say that they should pray to her and venerate her and exalt her and have pictures of her and icons of her, even though nobody knows what she looked like, of course. And you know, when you look at these orthodox icons, they don't even look human. Nobody looks like that. I mean, if you're looking for evolution's missing link, some of these icons, their face is shaped so weird. Right? You know what I'm talking about? It doesn't even look human. That's their God. That's who they're gonna pray to. That's who they're gonna bow down to. These weird paintings that don't even look human. They don't even look realistic. But in the orthodox church, they say that Mary is the mother of God. Let's see if that's biblical. Hebrews chapter seven, verse three. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. Now, notice the words without mother, okay? And obviously, we're talking about without earthly father, without earthly mother, in the sense that he's the Son of God. Now, if you would, go to Mark chapter number 12. Mark chapter number 12, okay? Because what I wanna point out to you is that although Jesus Christ is God, and although Mary was the mother of Jesus, humanly speaking, that does not make Mary the mother of God. See, this is a faulty logic. They take these extra steps. Instead of just believing what the Bible tells us, because you can't find a verse that says Mary's the mother of God. Show me that verse in the Bible. That's man's logic. Man's logic says, well, Mary's the mother of Jesus, and Jesus is God. Ergo, Mary is the mother of God. But that is not correct logic. That's man's wisdom. But there's no verse that says that. Everything we believe should be based on Bible verses, not just man's reasoning. But let's see if that logic holds up. Look at Mark 12, verse 35. And Jesus answered and said while he taught in the temple, how say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth him Lord, and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly. So what's Jesus saying here? That David is not the father of God, is what he's saying. Isn't that what he's saying here? He's saying, look, the scribes are saying that Christ is the Son of David, but he's saying, wait a minute, David calls Christ Lord. See, they thought Christ was just gonna be a human being. A lot of the Jews and even the Jews that you talked to today when they're looking for the Messiah, they think of it as just a human being who's gonna live and die and he's just a mortal man that God used. And Jesus is trying to teach them, no, no, no. David calls Christ Lord. He's not just a son of David. No, no, no, he's the Lord of David. He's the God of David. So in the sense that he's the Son of God and the Lord of the universe, he's not the Son of David in that sense. He's only the Son of David physically speaking, okay, in the sense that he physically descended from David on his human side, because he's the Son of man and he's the Son of God. But to sit there and make this jump that says, well, Mary's the mother of God, then you'd have to say, well, David's the father of God. David's the father of God, but that's false and he proves it false right in the scripture that you just looked at. Go if you would to Matthew chapter 12, that was Mark 12. Go to Matthew 12. So although Jesus is God and although Mary is the mother of Jesus, you're using faulty logic here because she is only the mother of Jesus humanly speaking, because Jesus as God existed before Mary was ever born. So she's not the mother of God. She's the mother of Jesus only in an earthly sense and taking that logical leap to calling her the mother of God is false doctrine and heresy. And not only that, but to venerate Mary is completely unscriptural. Look what the Bible says in Matthew 12, verse 47. Then one said unto him, behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, who is my mother and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, behold, my mother and my brethren. So Jesus putting great emphasis on his mother, Mary, he points at a random woman. He points at a random woman and said, this is my mother. Now does that put great emphasis on Mary that we should venerate her, enshrine her, have pictures of her, bow down to pictures of her, pray to her? No, they try to say, oh, your mother wants to talk to you. He's like, no, this is my mother. He points at every female follower who is doing his word and says, behold, my mother and my brethren. They also teach that Mary remained a virgin forever. Tough luck for Joseph. He thinks he's getting married. It's like, no, no, no, no, you be celibate. Why do all these perverts want everybody to be celibate anyway? The Catholics want them celibate as they're a bunch of molesters and adulterers and everything else. Catholics want them celibate, the Orthodox. Hey, it's false. It's not good for the man to be alone. And this whole idea that Mary remained a virgin, Jesus had at least seven half siblings. It talks about his brother, Joseph, his brother, James, his brother, Judas, his brother, Joseph. And he says, his sisters, are they not all with us? And they'll say, oh, well, that just means cousins. That's just relatives. But it doesn't use the word brethren in general. It names like his brother. Here's his name, Judas, his brother, James. Not only that, it says that she knew him not or that Joseph knew Mary not until she had brought forth her first born son. The implication being that after she brought forth her first born son, then they knew each other. Why would she need to remain a virgin? Only if you wanna worship her as some kind of a weird virgin goddess like the Babylonians. And it makes sense if you're into Mystery Babylon. If you wanna worship her like a bunch of Hindus bowing down to a female goddess. Also, it says that Jesus was the first born son. She brought forth her first born son in both Luke and Matthew chapter one. Well, what does that mean? If you have a first born son, you have to have a second. If there's a movie called Part One, you're expecting Part Two, right? So she brought forth her first born son and that's all she ever had. Why didn't she say she brought forth her only son? Or just she brought forth a son? Brought forth a son. Why put in that word first born? Oh yeah, that's right. The modern Bibles take out the word first born in Matthew 1.25 to try to hide that. Look at Luke 11. This is the best one that just demolishes this. Mariolatry is what it is. Mariolatry, idolatry directed at Mary. Mariolatry. Look at Luke chapter 11 verse 27. This is powerful. Look at this. Here's the one time in the Bible that somebody venerates Mary. One time. One time. I mean, here we have a billion Catholics. Here we have 300 million Orthodox all venerating Mary. Let's see what Jesus said to someone venerating Mary in the Bible. And by the way, they actually worship her. I'm just using their word. Venerate. Luke 11.27, it came to pass as he spake these things, a certain woman in the company lifted up her voice. This is the first Catholic, first Orthodox in the Bible. This is the first Orthodox in the Bible. A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bear thee and the paps which thou has sucked. But he said, yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. See, right away it was that doctrine that sucked. When he said, oh blessed are the paps that you sucked. He's like, what? Kind of a stupid, why would we bless the pap that I sucked? That makes no sense. He's saying, no. Rather blessed is the one who hears God's word and does it. And when did God ever tell you to worship Mary? When did God ever tell you to pray to Mary? When did God ever tell you to venerate Mary? So I'd be more blessed if I would just do what God told me to do and stay away from this weird stuff, blessing paps and wombs and everything else. It's not biblical. But I have to move on to my last point. Thirdly this, so number one, they're wrong on salvation. Number two, they have all the same heresy as the Catholics. I mean, can anyone think of a Catholic heresy that they don't have? Honestly, someone help me out. Is there a Roman Catholic heresy that the Orthodox don't have, besides sprinkling? Which to me, either way, if you're baptizing a baby, whether you're sprinkling or dunking, it's ridiculous. The Bible says that before you're baptized you have to believe. If thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest. You can't be baptized until you believe on Christ. So whether you're sprinkling or dunking, it's not biblical baptism, unless it's after you believe. It's gotta be believer's baptism. Okay, so they have all, first of all, they get salvation wrong, which means that they're, you say, why are you so mad about this? Because hundreds of millions of people are being damned. Hundreds of millions of people are praying, Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me a sinner, and they're all going to hell because they're trusting in their works and they're chanting a pagan chant that has nothing to do with what God actually told us to pray. So what happens is you have all these hundreds of millions of people going to hell. Somebody needs to stand up and rebuke this garbage sharply, as the Bible says. Someone needs to call this out as being accursed. Somebody needs to point out the lies and heresy and false teaching so that these people would wake up and realize that they're being led to hell and stop listening to these false teachers and false prophets. But not only are they wrong on salvation, number one, not only are they just like the Roman Catholics on virtually every point, number two, but number three, here's where they're even worse than Catholicism. They have even more of the Eastern mystical influence from Hinduism and Buddhism than the Catholics. And part of this has to do with geography. Just because they're Eastern Orthodox, the Catholics were more in the West, the Orthodox is closer to Buddhism, closer to Hinduism, so picked up more of the mystical, mythical mumbo jumbo of India and the Far East. Here are similarities between Orthodoxy and Hinduism and Buddhism. Chanting, of course, we already talked about. Catholics do that too. But listen to this. In Orthodoxy, you're not allowed to eat meat certain days of the week. Wednesdays and Fridays, no meat, no dairy on Wednesdays and Fridays. Now, that is identical to Hinduism. If you know anything about Hinduism, they'll say like, oh, I don't eat meat on Tuesdays. I don't eat meat on Thursdays. Now, Hinduism has such a variety of gods and goddesses that they worship, and it's like a thousand different denominations, as it were, of Hinduism. Hinduism's a really broad word, but every Hindu you talk to has got a different version of Hinduism, but when you talk to Hindus, they'll say, oh, I eat meat, just not on Tuesdays. Oh, I eat meat, just not Thursdays. Oh, I eat meat, but I don't do it on Wednesdays. Isn't it interesting that the Orthodox Church has the same thing? Show me that in the Bible. You'll never find that anywhere, except when it says that there'll be doctrines of devils, doctrines of demons commanding to abstain from meats, forbidding to marry, et cetera. Not only that, but this whole asceticism. Now, when we say asceticism, we're talking about where people think that it is virtuous to just go through suffering and pain and have no fun, that that makes you holy or righteous, right? And look, I've even known fundamental Baptists who are like this. I don't believe in it. I preached a whole sermon called Be Not Righteous Over Much, and I don't believe in asceticism. I don't believe in this idea that we should just abstain from good food, abstain from having pleasure with our spouse, abstain from any kind of fun or recreation and just live this life where we kind of whip ourselves and lay on a bed of nails, right, and wear a hair shirt. And this stuff is not biblical. Now, the Bible does teach that we should be willing to suffer for the cause of Christ. If need be, the Bible says, if need so require, if need be, we're in manifold temptations and we go through suffering, yet we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. But it doesn't say just go out and find suffering. Just go out and lay in the dirt and just not eat, not drink, all this stuff, it's false. Yeah, there are times of just temporal prayer and fasting, but not just this thing of just, oh, he's so holy because he just never leaves the house and just chants all day. He just chants that same sentence all day, so holy. I mean, what are you gonna do next? Start levitating off the floor like a Hindu or whatever? Fraud? You know, laying on a bed of nails, beating yourself, all these monasteries and let's get up at midnight and let's chant for three hours and let's beat ourselves and lay on a bed of nails and wear a hair shirt and no fun allowed. No, oh, and the singing, no musical instruments because it's too fun. You know, it's nonsense. The Bible says to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of your labor, enjoy what God's given you. You know, the people in the New Testament, yeah, they had prayer and fasting, but they also had feasting and fellowship also. We've been reading about it in the book of Zechariah where he's saying, hey, feast, have fellowship, you know, rejoice in the Lord, the joy of the Lord's your strength. They got mad at Jesus for not being ascetic enough. They called him a glutton and a wine bibber because he came eating and drinking and he wasn't drinking liquor, by the way, but they said, you know, the son of man came eating and drinking. Why aren't you fasting, they said to him. He's saying, well, because I'm not mourning. Can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? You know, I mean, these people, they don't fast for a specific reason. They don't fast and pray because of certain events in their life. It's just every Wednesday and Friday, we fast from meat and dairy. We go vegan for two days a week or whatever. And then just, you know, oh, you wanna be really holy, you have to start torturing yourself and not enjoying anything and chanting the same, look, it's boring, man. Who wants to chant any, I mean, this is like when you're a kid, you have to write lines. I will not talk in class, I will not talk in class. And you know what, to the Orthodox blinded false prophet, he's just thinking, oh, you're just not spiritual enough to enjoy chanting the same thing. But here's the thing, why aren't you spiritual enough to read this book as many times as I have, Orthodox fool? Why aren't you spiritual enough to read this book? It's funny, because he's talking about, oh, in the monastery, we read the lives of the saints and we sing these chants and we go through the liturgy and we chant the same prayer four times. It's funny how he didn't talk about how they sit down and read the Bible for several hours and actually learn what it says. Funny how I walked into an Orthodox bookstore in Romania, in Cluj, Romania, I walk into an Orthodox bookstore and there's the guy in the dress and the funny hat and books everywhere, paintings everywhere, icons everywhere, and I wanted a Bible. They had one style Bible, one. The Bible shelf was this big, one model. You guys have a New Testament? No. You guys have softback? No. Just one model, just a hardback, big, thick, hardback, couple, just a couple in stock. Thousands of pieces of junk. Thousands of man's wisdom, man's word. You know why they don't have a pocket New Testament? Because they don't care about reading the thing. I like pocket New Testament. I can take it with me everywhere I go and read it so I don't have to keep chanting things. I can actually read the word of God and actually realize that the Orthodox Church is false and that it's lies. Asceticism, monasticism. You know where these monasteries come from? Buddhism. The Buddhists were doing it before there ever was a Catholic. Okay, the Buddhists have been going to monasteries and torturing themselves for years and years before Jesus even walked on the earth, since 500 BC. That's where they're getting all that stuff. The mysticism, the superstition, the magical this and magical that. The shrines in the home. Now I know Catholics will have shrines, Roman Catholics, but the Orthodox will have shrines in their home where they worship, just like a Hindu. Go into a Hindu's house, they have a little alcove, a little shrine with the family deities which look just like Orthodox icons. They light their candles, they pray at their shrine. Go into an Orthodox home, you'll find the same thing. Same shrine, candles, the whole thing. The relics, the worshiping of dead bodies, Buddhists do the same thing. They go to these things called stupas. There's one in Sedona. Go check out the stupa thing yourself, but it's up in Sedona. And they bow down to the dead body. They bow down to the dead body of Buddha himself. I serve a risen savior. Bow down to the dead body. But here's the last thing I want to say. The last point I want to make about Orthodoxy. They have a strange doctrine of becoming one with God. Which again, comes straight out of Hinduism. The Atman becoming one with the Brahman, the creator, and I'm one with the universe, and all this becoming one with God, Om stuff, okay? They have the same thing in Orthodoxy. This is distinct from the Roman Catholics. This is what Saint Athanasius of Alexandria wrote. Jesus was made man that we might be made God. That's what they believe. The Orthodox believe that Jesus was made man that we might be made God. And that the entire life of the church is oriented toward making this possible and facilitating it. So this becoming one with God, where you become God. Not like the Mormons where they become a God, because the Mormons become their own God of their own planet. But in Orthodoxy, they become God. They kind of just merge into God or something like that. You say, well you just don't understand. I don't want to understand it because it's blasphemy and lies. So in conclusion, Orthodoxy is every bit as bad as Catholicism. It is Catholicism. In fact, they call it the Catholic Church. The Orthodox Catholic Church as separate from the Roman Catholic Church. But they will say we are Catholic. We are the Catholic Church. It's worse than Roman Catholicism in some ways. Identical to Roman Catholicism in other ways. They're both just in a total perversion of Christianity. It's paganism, it's superstition, it's the heathen religion. They're not saved. So what does that mean for us? That means we need to get them the gospel. And you know what? It's not that I hate these people. I love these people. Now you know who I would hate is the architects of this religion. The ones who actually created this monstrosity. They're evil, they're burning in hell. Okay, but look, 225 million Orthodox are not bad people. They're not evil people. They're just deceived. They've been lied to. They need Jesus. The real Jesus of the Bible, not their weird picture on the wall Jesus that's gonna save them by works if they chant enough. And so we have those who are Orthodox right here in our area. We need to go knock their doors and give them the gospel. And you know, we need to go to places like Romania and Greece and send missionaries all over the world that would go and reach these people with the gospel because they are not saved. So the first moral of the sermon is number one, because I think I've made a pretty convincing evidence that Orthodoxy is not Bible-believing Christianity and that they're not saved. The moral of the story is we need to realize they're not saved so that we can get them saved so that we can love their soul, pull them out of the fire, and hate even the garment spotted by the flesh. We ought to hate sin. We ought to hate false religion. We ought to hate lies and false doctrine. And we ought to hate even the garment that they wear, that wicked male dress. I mean, what's next, a man purse? Oh yeah, that's out there. You know, a man dress, man skirt. Well, but it's his religious garb. Put on a pair of pants like a man. All men should wear pants. And all God's people said, amen. But the second moral of the sermon is that we should not lift up and exalt the Orthodox as great Christians or listen to their teaching. They are false prophets. So therefore, Putin should not be lifted up as a Christian leader. Oh, he's such a great Christian role model. No, he's not. We shouldn't be listening to people like Brother Nathaniel because the guy is a false prophet. He's promoting his Orthodox garbage religion. And not only that, but even recently, an independent fundamental Baptist church, just a week and a half ago or so, they said, hey, you know, these Coptic Christians that were killed by ISIS, we know they're all in heaven. Now, wait a minute. I feel bad for anybody who's massacred or murdered anywhere by these Muslim weirdos. But let me say this, though. We need to be careful that we don't just say, oh, they're all in heaven when they're Catholic. Right. I don't believe Catholics go to heaven. You know what? If I believe that Catholics were going to heaven, then the way isn't narrow anymore. Right. The Bible says narrows the way. And if I believe that Catholics are saved, then when I'm out soul winning, I'd be skipping a lot of doors. Oh, they're good to go. They're good. You guys are good, you guys are good. But you know what? Who's been out soul winning with me? And I know most of the people in our church, I don't think, ask this question. But when I go soul winning, I usually open with the question, are you a Christian? Who asks that question sometimes when you're out soul winning? Yeah, most people just go into the, you know, do you go to church if you die today? But the last few years I've been opening with that, just are you a Christian? And who's been with me when the people say no, I'm Catholic? Put up your hand. These are just my soul winning partners, or if you've heard it on your own, maybe. Yeah. I mean, literally, I asked that question over and over again every week, every week, every week. I'm like, are you a Christian? And literally two out of three Catholics will say no, I'm Catholic. One out of three will say yes, I'm Catholic. Yes, I'm Catholic. Or yes, I go to so and so at the Catholic church. Literally two out of three. But you know what? I like that answer. Because if you're Catholic, you're not Christian. And I'm not trying to offend people or hurt people's feelings, but you know what? If we declare Catholics to be Christians, if we declare Orthodox Coptic Christians as Christians, then what are we doing? We're giving a false sense of security to people that are on their way to hell. We're sanctioning a wicked church that's an apostate mother harlot Babylon church, and we should have nothing to do with it. And we need to realize these people need salvation. And they need it from the word of God, not from the Orthodox church. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord God, thank you so much, Lord, for the Bible, that we don't have to rely on some man in a dress to tell us the holy traditions, Lord. We don't have to look at a bunch of weird looking pictures to figure out who you are, Lord. Thank you for giving us your perfect, preserved word where we could open its pages every day and we could have the mind of Christ through your word, Lord. Help us not to be deceived by the false prophets that are out there, Lord. These false prophets come to us in sheep's clothing many times, and they come to us and they tell us all kinds of great truths, but then they sneak in with this orthodoxy and heresy. Help us to mark and avoid these false prophets, and help us to love and reach with the gospel those who've been deceived by these false teachers. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.